Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area

Grinding media in coarse grinding tumbling mills constitute the biggest consumable cost to a comminution processing plant, therefore it is critically important to minimize associated wear. Secondly, efficient grinding is dependent on tight control of the desired ball size distribution, or else optim...

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Main Authors: Franke, J., Michalek, S., Schurmann, P., Achkar, O., West, Geoffrey
Other Authors: Willy Kracht
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Gekamine Ltd 2010
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11957
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author Franke, J.
Michalek, S.
Schurmann, P.
Achkar, O.
West, Geoffrey
author2 Willy Kracht
author_facet Willy Kracht
Franke, J.
Michalek, S.
Schurmann, P.
Achkar, O.
West, Geoffrey
author_sort Franke, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Grinding media in coarse grinding tumbling mills constitute the biggest consumable cost to a comminution processing plant, therefore it is critically important to minimize associated wear. Secondly, efficient grinding is dependent on tight control of the desired ball size distribution, or else optimum impact breakage cannot be assured. Despite the significance of minitoring ball size distribution for mill operation, no practically deployable systems are currently in industry use to measure it. This paper describes a new method for highly accurate, comprehensive, and rapid determination of ball size distribution.Accurate SAG and AG mill product size control is dependent on appropriate Grate Open Area dimensions. Wear of the grate hole edges or in the plate thickness results in an increase of the open area due to the tapered hole cross section, which can result in oversize product exiting the mill. Conversely, some grate castings feature peening of the edges during mill operation, thereby decreasing open area, and therefore preventing the desireed top size product from exiting the mill.SAG mill throughput requires grate holes to remain open or else throughput is restricted. Many grates in operation are pegged by grinding media to varying degrees of severity. This paper introduces a comprehensive, accurate and rapid method to measure and track the size and pegging status of each and all grate holes in situ, and therefore provides tracking information on the Open Area of a SAG mill. This enables operators to control the primary mill product size and therefore the opportunity to stabilize downstream processes.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2010
publisher Gekamine Ltd
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-119572022-12-09T07:12:37Z Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area Franke, J. Michalek, S. Schurmann, P. Achkar, O. West, Geoffrey Willy Kracht Romke Kuyvenhoven Gonzalo Montes-Atenas Grinding media in coarse grinding tumbling mills constitute the biggest consumable cost to a comminution processing plant, therefore it is critically important to minimize associated wear. Secondly, efficient grinding is dependent on tight control of the desired ball size distribution, or else optimum impact breakage cannot be assured. Despite the significance of minitoring ball size distribution for mill operation, no practically deployable systems are currently in industry use to measure it. This paper describes a new method for highly accurate, comprehensive, and rapid determination of ball size distribution.Accurate SAG and AG mill product size control is dependent on appropriate Grate Open Area dimensions. Wear of the grate hole edges or in the plate thickness results in an increase of the open area due to the tapered hole cross section, which can result in oversize product exiting the mill. Conversely, some grate castings feature peening of the edges during mill operation, thereby decreasing open area, and therefore preventing the desireed top size product from exiting the mill.SAG mill throughput requires grate holes to remain open or else throughput is restricted. Many grates in operation are pegged by grinding media to varying degrees of severity. This paper introduces a comprehensive, accurate and rapid method to measure and track the size and pegging status of each and all grate holes in situ, and therefore provides tracking information on the Open Area of a SAG mill. This enables operators to control the primary mill product size and therefore the opportunity to stabilize downstream processes. 2010 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11957 Gekamine Ltd fulltext
spellingShingle Franke, J.
Michalek, S.
Schurmann, P.
Achkar, O.
West, Geoffrey
Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
title Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
title_full Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
title_fullStr Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
title_full_unstemmed Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
title_short Automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
title_sort automated condition monitoring of mill ball size distribution and grate open area
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11957